October 4, 2020 - "World Day of Migrants & Refugees"

Sunday, September 27, 2020, marks the 106^th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.  Pope Francis delivered a message for this occasion which was dated May 13, 2020.  I want to present some points from his message for our consideration today and next week.
 
Pope Francis decided to devote this message to the drama of internally displaced persons, an often unseen tragedy that the global crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic has only made much worse.  In fact, owing to its virulence, severity, and geographical extent, this crisis has had a big impact on many other humanitarian emergencies that affect millions of people.  This is not a time of forgetfulness, the Holy Father continues, and this crisis should not make us forget the many other crises that bring suffering to so many people.
 
In his Message for this Day in 2018, Pope Francis said that we are called to respond to this pastoral challenge with four verbs:  welcome, protect, promote, and integrate.  To these words Pope Francis would like to add another six pairs of verbs that deal with very practical actions and are linked together in a relationship of cause and effect.  Here are the six pairs of verbs:
 
· To know in order to understand
· To be close in order to serve
· To listen in order to be reconciled
· To share in order to grow
· To be involved in order to promote
· To cooperate in order to build
 
I want to present now what the Holy Father said about the first three pairs of verbs:
 
You have to know in order to understand.  Knowledge is a necessary step towards understanding others.  Jesus himself tells us this in the account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Lk 24:15-16).  When we talk about migrants and displaced persons, all too often we stop at statistics, it is about real people!  If we encounter them, we will get to know more about them.  And knowing their stories, we will be able to understand them.  We will be able to understand, for example, that the precariousness that we have come to experience as result of this pandemic is a constant in the lives of displaced people.
 
It is necessary to be close in order to serve.  It may seem obvious, yet often it is the contrary.  “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where the man was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him” (Lk 10:33-34).  Fears and prejudices—all too many prejudices—keep us distant from others and often prevent us from “becoming neighbors” to them and serving them with love.  Drawing close to others often means being willing to take risks, as so many doctors and nurses have taught us in recent months. 

This readiness to draw near and serve goes beyond a mere sense of duty.  Jesus gave us the greatest example of this when he washed the feet of his disciples: he took off his cloak, knelt down and dirtied his hands (cf. Jn 13:1-15).
 
In order to be reconciled, we need to listen.  God himself taught us this by sending his Son into the world.  He wanted to listen to the plea of suffering humanity with human ears:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:16-17).  A love that reconciles and saves begins with listening.  In today’s world, messages multiply but the practice of listening is being lost.  Yet it is only through humble and attentive listening that we can truly be reconciled.  In 2020, silence has reigned for weeks in our streets.  A dramatic and troubling silence, but one that has given us the opportunity to listen to the plea of the vulnerable, the displaced and our seriously ill planet.  Listening gives us an opportunity to be reconciled with our neighbor, with all those who have been “discarded,” with ourselves and with God, who never tires of offering his mercy.
 
I do want to wish everyone a Blessed Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi!
 
Until next week,
Fr. John